Closing out an engaging decade that brought us comics-based films as different as Hellboy and The Dark Knight, 2009 started strong but finished weak. But does the future hold promise in the arms of Iron Man 2 — and less-predictable icons?
After years reigning as the most unfilmable of comics, Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ legendary Watchmen came to brutal and mostly faithful life this year, only to cull $185 million worldwide. The Bruce Willis-led blockbuster of Robert Veniditti and Brett Weldele’s indie sci-fi comic The Surrogates could barely replicate $60 million. The otherwise brilliant upstart Coraline failed to break the top 25 globally. Even the no-brainer, and perhaps unfairly panned, merge of Hollywood CGI and Osamu Tezuka’s venerable manga Astro Boy barely cleared the launchpad at over $20 million.
Why? The answer perhaps lies in the bare-chested magnetism of Wolverine.
Image courtesy 20th Century Fox" title="X-Men Origins Wolverine" width="660" height="381" class="size-full wp-image-25537"> Only the hairy, magnetic presence of Wolverine galvanized the comics-based film box office in 2009.
Image courtesy 20th Century FoxThe feral X-Man was the only comics superstar who did manage to sniff cinema’s top 10 blockbusters, with an origins story that was masculine hero worship writ large. Sure, Watchmen had its paragon of masculinity in the villainous Ozymandias, but his suit was more Batman & Robin than The Dark Knight. Even a fully naked CGI Dr. Manhattan standing two stories high was overshadowed by a Marvel Comics icon that kept his pants mostly on during mammoth brawl sessions.
Up against the stone-cold CGI innovation of Avatar, the built-in fandom of Star Trek or even the male-demo laugher The Hangover, comics-based films had a hard time staying ahead of capitalization’s curve. That is, unless they starred cyborg war machines throwing down and damning the collateral damage.
Going smarter certainly paid off in the minor victories of Coraline, and even Watchmen. But once you factor in that the first was technically based on a novella from comics hero Neil Gaiman, and the second was subject to venom-spray by Moore, the focus on comics-based films tends to narrow to boys, toys and not much else.
Speaking of Iron Man 2, perhaps it is Robert Downey Jr.’s humor (and hair) that will bring comics-based films a pay raise next year, in the form of a much-anticipated sequel. But once the realization dawns that Downey’s Tony Stark will spend 2010 accompanied by comics bench-warmers like Jonah Hex and few if any others, it becomes clear that comics-based cinema still has a way to go.
Especially before it conquers jive-talking Transformers, horny Harry Potter and bros with babies.
Short of another Batman film, that is. Waiting for the next one? I’d exhale that Bat-breath for now, if I were you. It’s going to be a while. Got any suggestions for comics-based movies that might make some serious noise, and money, in the meantime? Assemble them in the comments section below.
